Like the rest of us, Barak Obama had virtually no understanding of how or why Wall Street had torpedoed the US economy as he rounded into the final months of his 2008 Presidential campaign.

I write these words even as Donald Trump’s Presidency is rocked by yet new revelations that he is an incompetent President of the United States, when a member of his own administration has anonymously written an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times claiming that his top officials regularly remove sensitive papers from his desk, “slow-walk” his orders, and have to re-explain the simplest of security matters to him.

Americans have a right to expect better from Trump, but how much better?

In Confidence Men we learn that Obama’s economics advisors “re-litigated” Obama’s decisions, “slow-walked” the ones they didn’t like, and flat out ignored others.

But even Obama was not the first.

The US Intelligence Community flat out hid an intelligence assessment from George Bush out of fears that the information would lead Bush and Vice-President Cheney to declare yet another war in the Middle East.

General Westmoreland fed Lyndon Johnson terrible advice and progress reports about the war in Vietnam. But Johnson largely accepted them.

John Kennedy completely bungled the Vienna Summit with Nikita Kruschev.

President Wilson suffered such serious strokes that his wife made all Presidential decisions for the last two years of his presidency.

President Grant was tricked into helping Jay Gould’s manipulation of gold prices before that, and the list of Presidential losers goes on and on.

What exactly should Americans expect of their President and is the office?

Ostentibly the office was designed to administer the fledgling US government, act on the laws passed by Congress, and give the armed forces a single voice to obey.

But from the beginning, the President has been charged with delegating responsibility to paid officers, and often officers paid on a fee-for-service model that encouraged terrific corruption. And they have “slow-walked” reforms to that system ever since.

People who mourn the loss of professionalism in government forget the alienation that accompanied the professional cadres of American government officials. They believed the bureaucracy sclerotic, the decisions divorced from the “real” needs of the people.

Clearly, government is a work in process. If Americans have anything to worry about it’s that their constitution not pre-empt changing circumstances. And if Americans have anything to fear from their Republican leaders its that they ignore global problems out what they say are threats to their sovereignty.

Sovereignty is a useful fiction for vested interests.

Climate change is not a negotiable outcome. ( )

Insightful look into how Obama policies were developed, especially regarding the economy and health care, who his advisers were, how they were selected, and how policy was developed. I found the discussion of the make-up of Obama's economic advisory team most interesting, as well as the insight that Obama seems better suited at making an intellectual argument than actually winning an argument with political foes.
It doesn't read like a Rush Limbaugh / Sean Hannity / Glen Beck partisan rant, nor is it a liberal whitewash overlooking the problems and deficiencies of the Obama Administration. It lays out the issues, the pros and cons, and lets the reader make his or her independent judgment. The reality is that Obama's approval rating has declined during his presidency, and it's not unexpected that Suskind's book would reflect some of the issues which led to this decline in approval. But I didn't view this as a hatchet-job, facts are facts, and results are results.
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This book is about President Obama first years in office and the financial crisis.

Too soon! Too soon!

This type of book is not my cup of tea, but I powered through because it was a book club book. In the end it made me see certain things in a slightly broader context, but I think the story would be much better when written with some perspective. ( )

This book is another view of the financial crisis and how the newly elected Obama administration handled it. Based on Suskind's findings, they did not handle it very well. Too many egos, too much political infighting and a lack of leadership from the President stymied progress on financial and economic fronts. This book basically covered events from 2008 – 2010 so given the economic recovery Obama and his administration must've gotten their act together. Pres. Obama is shown as a very smart man who grasped quickly the implications and effects of the economic turn down. Unfortunately the team and cabinet he assembled were not able to work together and develop a comprehensive economic plan to address the nation's woes, particularly unemployment.

This book is 482 pages but if you are a political junkie like me, you'll find it an interesting read. ( )

Ron Suskind's a good writer, but he's also in love with Barack Obama. Well, maybe not in love, but he's certainly not an objective or dispassionate observer. Even while he's observing that Obama may not have been ready for the Presidency, he's lavishing praise on the politician.

I read as long as I could, but after a third of the book fawning over Obama without really examining what was going on, I started to tire. Barack Obama is no villain as he's been portrayed by many, but neither is he a semi-deity or Olympian hero. Further, much of the material that Suskind covers is not new, having been reported in other sources. If you've read nothing else about the last few years, it's not a bad way to become familiar with some of the major players, and it's not horrible writing. But if you're looking for in-depth analysis and reporting, there are better books out there. "Too big to fail" is a good place to start.

I may come back to it later, but right now, it feels repetitive. Meanwhile, life's too short to read books that duplicate what you've already read. I'm moving on to a new book tonight.
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